To John Penn, Esq. Poem by Charlotte Dacre

I joy to see that still on earth
The sympathetic sigh
Can in a human heart find birth,
Or pity dim the eye.

For long I thought all feeling gone;
Disgust had seiz'd my heart:
I view'd the selfish world with scorn,
But pride conceal'd my smart—

And men beyond conception base,
And women false and vain:
My wand'ring heart ne'er found a place,
Cast back on me again.

From such a world alarm'd I fly,
In solitude to pine;
I feel, but will in secret die,
And guard those feelings mine.